From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Orphan Train comes a novel about buried secrets and the redemptive power of forgivenessCassie Simon is a struggling artist living in New York City. When she receives a call from a magistrate telling her she has inherited sixty acres of land in Sweetwater, Tennessee, from her grandfather, whom she never knew, she takes it as a sign: it's time for a change. She moves to the small Southern town where her mother, Ellen, grew up—and where she died tragically when Cassie was three.From the moment she arrives in Sweetwater, Cassie is overwhelmed by the indelible mark her mother's memory left behind. As she delves into the thicket of mystery that surrounds her mother's death, Cassie begins to discover the desperate measures of which the human heart is capable.

This immensely moving novel confronts divisions of race, gender, and class, fusing together the stories of people who come to recognize one another from former lives they didn't know existed -- or that they tried to forget. Diego, a deaf-mute, is barely surviving on the border in El Paso, Texas. Diego's sister, Helen, who lives with her husband in the posh suburbs of San Francisco, long ago abandoned both her brother and her El Paso roots. Helen's best friend, Lizzie, a nurse in an AIDS ward, begins to uncover her own buried past after a mystical encounter with a patient. With Carry Me Like Water, Benjamin Alire Sáenz unfolds a beautiful story about hope and forgiveness, unexpected reunions, an expanded definition of family, and, ultimately, what happens when the disparate worlds of pain and privilege collide.

Shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize A Kirkus Best Book of the YearPlagued by guilt, paralyzed by shame, Jinx has spent the years since her mother's death alone, estranged from her husband, withdrawn from her son, and entrenched in a childhood home filled with fierce and violent memories. When Lemon, an old family friend, appears unbidden at the door, he seduces Jinx with a heady mix of powerful storytelling and tender care. What follows is a tense and passionate weekend, as the two join forces to unravel the tragedy that binds them. Jinx has long carried the burden of the past; now, she must relive her mother's last days, confront her grief head-on, and speak the truth as only she knows it.Expertly woven and perfectly paced, A Cupboard Full of Coats is both a heartbreaking family drama and a riveting mystery, with a cast of characters who linger in the mind and the heart long after the last page has been turned.

All you need to know to be a princess—OrJust live like oneCompiled byMia ThermopolisakaPrincessAmeliaMignonetteGrimaldiThermopolisRenaldoof Genovia

Based on the terrible truths of Jonestown, Jim Jones's utopian commune in Guyana, Children of Paradise is a beautifully imagined novel that interweaves history and fiction to portray a mother and daughter's escape from the rule of a religious madman.Joyce and her young daughter, Trina, have followed a charismatic preacher from California to the wilds of Guyana, where a thousand congregants have cleared a swath of dense jungle and built a utopian society based on a rigid order guarded over by armed men and teenage "prefects." Each day ends with sermons that demonstrate the preacher's capricious violence and his utmost hostility toward even a whisper of skepticism. But try as the preacher may to block out the world, the commune's seclusion is being breached, first by tribal elders complaining of polluted river water downstream, then by an invisible presence that has helped a young boy to disappear, and finally with rumors of the imminent arrival of a congressional delegation on a fact-finding mission.As the camp begins rehearsing an endgame of mass suicide, Joyce and Trina attempt a daring escape, aided by a local boat captain and the most unlikely of prisoners—the extraordinary Adam, the commune's caged gorilla.Told with a sweeping perspective in lush prose, shimmering with magic, and devastating in its clarity, Children of Paradise is a brilliant and evocative exploration of the liberating power of storytelling.

Ten years ago, fifteen-year-old Scarlett Rainsford vanished while on a family holiday in Greece. Was she abducted, or did she run awayLou Smith worked the case as a police constable, and failing to find Scarlett has been one of the biggest regrets of her career. No one is more shocked than Lou to learn that Scarlett has unexpectedly been found during a Special Branch raid of a brothel in Briarstone.Lou and her Major Crimes team are already stretched working two troubling cases: nineteen-year-old Ian Palmer was found badly beaten; soon after, bar owner Carl McVey was found half-buried in the woods, his Rolex and money gone. While Lou tries to establish the links between the two cases, DS Sam Hollands works with Special Branch to question Scarlett. What happened to herWhere has she been until nowAnd why is her family—with the exception of her emotionally fragile younger sister, Juliette—less than enthusiastic about her return?When another brutal assault and homicide are linked to the McVey murder, Lou's cases collide, and the clues all point in one terrifying direction. As the pressure and the danger mount, it becomes clear that the silent, secretive Scarlett holds the key to everything.

At the dawn of the 21st century, the old paradigms of medicine have begun to fall apart. We no longer believe that our bodies are machines with parts that wear down, only to be braced up by drugs or replaced through surgery. Instead, a growing number of pioneering researchers embrace a new view of healing – one expounded by Dr. Richard Gerber in his groundbreaking best–seller, Vibrational Medicine.Now he shows how to put this new way of thinking into practical use, describing the role of consciousness and "thought forms," as well as the benefits of homoeopathy, acupuncture, colour and light healing, magnetobiology, and other therapies. A traditionally trained physician, Dr. Gerber combines scientific evidence with traditional methods from the East and West to unlock our potential for healing ourselves.

“Tina Seskis’ twisted psychological thriller keeps readers guessing at Emily’s secrets until the end.” —Us WeeklyAn apparently happy marriage. A beautiful family. A dream home. So what makes lawyer Emily Coleman—a woman who appears to have everything—get up one morning and walk right out of her life to start again as someone new?Deliberately losing herself in London, Emily quickly transforms herself into Cat. Along with her new name, she finds a new home in a shared house in North London teeming with an odd assortment of flatmates, and a new job as a receptionist.Soon Cat has buried any trace of her old self so well, no one knows how to find her. But she can’t bury the past—or her own painful memories. As the days turn to months, thoughts of all she’s left behind begin to consume her. She cannot outrun the ghosts that haunt her, no matter how hard she tries to elude them. And soon, she’ll have to face the truth of what she’s done—a shocking revelation that may push her one step too far. . . .“[A] diverting read.” —Publishers Weekly

From New York Times bestselling author T.C. Boyle, a powerful, gripping novel that explores the roots of violence and anti-authoritarianism inherent In the American character Set in contemporary Northern California, The Harder They Come explores the volatile connections between three damaged people—an aging ex-Marine and Vietnam veteran, his psychologically unstable son, and the son's paranoid, much-older lover—as they careen toward an explosive confrontation.On a cruise to Central America, seventy-year-old Sten Stensen unflinchingly kills an armed robber menacing a busload of tourists. The reluctant hero is relieved to return home to Fort Bragg, California—only to find that his delusional son, Adam, has spiraled out of control.Adam has become involved with Sara, a hardened member of a right-wing anarchist group that refuses to acknowledge the laws of the state. Adam's senior by some fifteen years, she becomes his protector and inamorata. As Adam's mental state fractures, he becomes increasingly delusional until a schizophrenic breakdown leads him to shoot two people. On the run, he takes to the woods, spurring the biggest manhunt in California history. As T.C. Boyle explores a father's legacy of violence and his powerlessness in relating to his equally violent son, he offers unparalleled insights into the American psyche. Inspired by a true story, The Harder They Come is a devastating and indelible novel from a modern master.

Sixteen-year-old Julia Whitmire appeared to have everything: a famous father, a luxurious Manhattan town house, a coveted spot at the elite Casden prep school. When she is found dead in her bathtub, a handwritten suicide note left on her bed, her parents insist that their daughter would never take her own life.But Julia's enviable world was more complicated than it seemed. The pressure to excel at Casden was enormous. Abuse of pre*ion antidepressants and ADHD medication ran rampant among students; an unlabeled bottle of pills in Julia's purse suggests she had succumbed to the trend. And a search of Julia's computer reveals that in the days leading up to her death she was engaged in a dangerous game of cyberbullying against an unlikely victim.NYPD detective Ellie Hatcher is convinced the case is a suicide, but she knows from personal experience that a loving family can be the last to accept the truth. When the Whitmires use their power to force a criminal investigation, Ellie's resistance causes trouble for her both at work and in her personal life. As she is pressured to pursue a case she doesn't believe in, she is pulled into Julia's inner circle—an eclectic mix of overly precocious teenagers from Manhattan's most privileged families as well as street kids from Greenwich Village. But when the target of Julia's harassment continues to receive death threats, Ellie is forced to acknowledge that Julia may have learned the hard way that some secrets should never be told.

It's been six years since Pen Calloway watched Cat and Will, her best friends from college, walk out of her life. Through the birth of her daughter, the death of her father, and the vicissitudes of single motherhood, she has never stopped missing them. When, after years of silence, Cat—the bewitching, charismatic center of their group—urgently requests that the three meet at their college reunion, Pen can't refuse. But instead of a happy reconciliation, what awaits is a collision of past and present that sends Pen and Will on a journey around the world, with Pen's five-year-old daughter and Cat's hostile husband in tow. And as Pen and Will struggle to uncover the truth about Cat, they find more than they bargained for: startling truths about who they were before and who they are now.With her trademark wit, vivid prose, and gift for creating authentic, captivating characters, Marisa de los Santos returns with an emotionally resonant novel about our deepest human connections.

Harper Lee's Pulitzer prize-winning masterwork of honor and injustice in the deep south—and the heroism of one man in the face of blind and violent hatred, available now for the first time as an e-book.One of the best-loved stories of all time, To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into more than forty languages, sold more than thirty million copies worldwide, served as the basis for an enormously popular motion picture, and was voted one of the best novels of the twentieth century by librarians across the country. A gripping, heart-wrenching, and wholly remarkable tale of coming-of-age in a South poisoned by virulent prejudice, it views a world of great beauty and savage inequities through the eyes of a young girl, as her father-a crusading local lawyer-risks everything to defend a black man unjustly accused of a terrible crime.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Princess Diaries series comes the very first adult installment, which follows Princess Mia and her prince charming as they plan their fairy-tale wedding—though a few poisoned apples could turn this happily-ever-after into a royal nightmareFor Princess Mia, the past five years since college graduation have been a whirlwind of activity: living in New York City, running her new teen community center, being madly in love, and attending royal engagements. And speaking of engagements. Mia's gorgeous longtime boyfriend, Michael, managed to clear both their schedules just long enough for an exotic (and very private) Caribbean island interlude where he popped the question! Of course, Mia didn't need to consult her diary to know that her answer was a royal oui.But now Mia has a scandal of majestic proportions to contend with: her grandmother has leaked "fake" wedding plans to the press that could cause even normally calm Michael to become a runaway groom. Worse, a scheming politico is trying to force Mia's father from the throne, all because of a royal secret that could leave Genovia without a monarch. Can Mia prove to everyone—especially herself—that she's not only ready to wed, but ready to rule as well?

Khaliah Ali, daughter of Muhammad Ali, shares her success at overcoming obesity through banding surgery—a minimally invasive, reversible, and extremely effective choice for drastically overweight peopleWhen Muhammad Ali's daughter Khaliah hit 325 pounds, she didn't need to be told again that she was morbidly obese. A lifetime of dieting, of starving, had not helped. Miserable, depressed, and unable to walk up a flight of stairs without losing her breath, she did not know which way to turn—until a friend pointed her toward a new type of surgery called gastric banding. It is just as effective as gastric bypass but with a fraction of potential complications. With the band placed around her stomach and completely taking away her hunger, Khaliah slimmed down to half her former size. Khaliah wraps her story of weight loss in this memoir of what it was like to grow up the daughter of one of the world's most famous men, and teams up with her surgeons at the New York University Medical Center to detail the lifetime of misery suffered by an obese girl; the ins and outs of the banding operation; and the joy, serenity, and health resulting from a solution that until now had eluded her.

Meet Tom Ripple, a man with an uncommon outlook on his common life. Through the vividness of his voice and his growing sense of the sorrow and absurdity of the world, Tom Ripple becomes an unusually appealing antihero, aware of his ordinariness and the limits of his intelligence, with a ribald sense of humor, and a clumsiness in his attempts at emotional connection with others. He is a bewildered everyman navigating his way through modern times. By turns poignant, funny, heartbreaking, and profound, It's All Right Now is a towering achievement and a singular work of the imagination.

Over 140 practical recipes to help you make sense of your data with ease and build production-ready data apps About This Book Analyze Big Data sets, create attractive visualizations, and manipulate and process various data types Packed with rich recipes to help you learn and explore amazing algorithms for statistics and machine learning Authored by Ivan Idris, expert in python programming and proud author of eight highly reviewed books Who This Book Is For This book teaches Python data analysis at an intermediate level with the goal of transforming you from journeyman to master. Basic Python and data analysis skills and affinity are assumed. What You Will Learn Set up reproducible data analysis Clean and transform data Apply advanced statistical analysis Create attractive data visualizations Web scrape and work with databases, Hadoop, and Spark Analyze images and time series data Mine text and analyze social networks Use machine learning and evaluate the results Take advantage of parallelism and concurrency In Detail Data analysis is a rapidly evolving field and Python is a multi-paradigm programming language suitable for object-oriented application development and functional design patterns. As Python offers a range of tools and libraries for all purposes, it has slowly evolved as the primary language for data science, including topics on: data analysis, visualization, and machine learning. Python Data Analysis Cookbook focuses on reproducibility and creating production-ready systems. You will start with recipes that set the foundation for data analysis with libraries such as matplotlib, NumPy, and pandas. You will learn to create visualizations by choosing color maps and palettes then dive into statistical data analysis using distribution algorithms and correlations. You’ll then help you find your way around different data and numerical problems, get to grips with Spark and HDFS, and then set up migration *s for web mining. In this book, you will dive deeper into recipes on spectral analysis, smoothing, and bootstrapping methods. Moving on, you will learn to rank stocks and check market efficiency, then work with metrics and clusters. You will achieve parallelism to improve system performance by using multiple threads and speeding up your code. By the end of the book, you will be capable of handling various data analysis techniques in Python and devising solutions for problem scenarios. Style and Approach The book is written in “cookbook” style striving for high realism in data analysis. Through the recipe-based format, you can read each recipe separately as required and immediately apply the knowledge gained.

Create succinct and expressive implementations with functional programming in Python About This Book ? Learn how to choose between imperative and functional approaches based on expressiveness, clarity, and performance ? Get familiar with complex concepts such as monads, concurrency, and immutability ? Apply functional Python to common Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) programming problems Who This Book Is For This book is for Python developers who would like to perform Functional programming with Python. Python Programming knowledge is assumed. What You Will Learn ? Use Python's generator functions and generator expressions to work with collections in a non-strict (or lazy) manner ? Utilize Python library modules including itertools, functools, multiprocessing, and concurrent features to ensure efficient functional programs ? Use Python strings with object-oriented suffix notation and prefix notation ? Avoid stateful classes with families of tuples ? Design and implement decorators to create composite functions ? Use functions such as max(), min(), map(), filter(), and sorted() ? Write higher-order functions In Detail If you’re a Python developer who wants to discover how to take the power of functional programming (FP) and bring it into your own programs, then this book is essential for you, even if you know next to nothing about the paradigm. Starting with a general overview of functional concepts, you’ll explore common functional features such as first-class and higher-order functions, pure functions, and more. You’ll see how these are accomplished in Python 3.6 to give you the core foundations you’ll build upon. After that, you’ll discover common functional optimizations for Python to help your apps reach even higher speeds. You’ll learn FP concepts such as lazy evaluation using Python’s generator functions and expressions. Moving forward, you’ll learn to design and implement decorators to create composite functions. You'll also explore data preparation techniques and data exploration in depth, and see how the Python standard library fits the functional programming model. Finally, to top off your journey into the world of functional Python, you’ll at look at the PyMonad project and some larger examples to put everything into perspective. Style and approach This book provides a general overview of functional concepts and then delves deeper into the functional features, showing you how the Python standard library fits the functional programming model. It also demonstrates how to implement common functional programming design patterns and techniques in Python.

This book is aimed at system administrators and technical architects moving from a virtualized environment to cloud environments; who are familiar with cloud computing platforms. Knowledge of virtualization and managing Linux environments is expected. Prior knowledge or experience of OpenStack is not required, although beneficial.

A practical guide for building effective enterprise solutions with Java EE 8 About This Book ? Recipes to get you up-and-running with Java EE 8 application development ? Learn how to apply the major Java EE 8 APIs and specifications ? Implement microservices and Reactive programming with Java EE 8 Who This Book Is For This book is for developers who want to become proficient with Java EE 8 for their enterprise application development. Basic knowledge of Java is assumed What You Will Learn ? Actionable information on the new features of Java EE 8 ? Using the most important APIs with real and working code ? Building server side applications, web services, and web applications ? Deploying and managing your application using the most important Java EE servers ? Building and deploying microservices using Java EE 8 ? Building Reactive application by joining Java EE APIs and core Java features ? Moving your application to the cloud using containers ? Practical ways to improve your projects and career through community involvement In Detail Java EE is a collection of technologies and APIs to support Enterprise Application development. The choice of what to use and when can be dauntingly complex for any developer. This book will help you master this. Packed with easy to follow recipes, this is your guide to becoming productive with Java EE 8. You will begin by seeing the latest features of Java EE 8, including major Java EE 8 APIs and specifications such as JSF 2.3, and CDI 2.0, and what they mean for you. You will use the new features of Java EE 8 to implement web-based services for your client applications. You will then learn to process the Model and Streaming APIs using JSON-P and JSON-B and will learn to use the Java Lambdas support offered in JSON-P. There are more recipes to fine-tune your RESTful development, and you will learn about the Reactive enhancements offered by the JAX-RS 2.1 specification. Later on, you will learn about the role of multithreading in your enterprise applications and how to integrate them for transaction handling. This is followed by implementing microservices with Java EE and the advancements made by Java EE for cloud computing. The final set of recipes shows you how take advantage of the latest security features and authenticate your enterprise application. At the end of the book, the Appendix shows you how knowledge sharing can change your career and your life. Style and approach Task based learning guide to help ease application development with Java EE.

Discover all the secrets of Unreal Engine and create seven fully functional games with the help of step-by-step instructions About This Book Understand what a Blueprint is and how to create a complex visual *ing code Discover the infinite possibilities that Unreal Engine offers, and understand which tool to use, where and when Learn to think like a real game developer in order to create enjoyable and bug-free games using this comprehensive and practical handbook Who This Book Is For This book is ideal for intermediate level developers who know how to use Unreal Engine and want to go through a series of projects that will further their expertise. Working knowledge of C++ is a must. What You Will Learn Write clean and reusable Blueprint *s Develop any kind of game you have in mind, following the rules used by experts Move through Unreal Engine 4, always knowing what you are doing and where to find the right tool for your needs Integrate C++ code into your projects using Visual Studio and the tools that Unreal provides Extricate between classes, nodes, interfaces, macros, and functions Work with different types of assets, from 3D objects to audio sources, from UI buttons to animations Explore all the aspects of the game logic—collisions, navigation meshes, matinees, volumes, events, and states In Detail With the arrival of Unreal Engine 4, a new wonderful tool was born: Blueprint. This visual *ing tool allows even non-programmers to develop the logic for their games, allowing almost anyone to create entire games without the need to write a single line of code. The range of features you can access with Blueprint * is pretty extensive, making it one of the foremost choices for many game developers. Unreal Engine Game Development Blueprints helps you unleash the real power of Unreal by helping you to create engaging and spectacular games. It will explain all the aspects of developing a game, focusing on visual *ing, and giving you all the information you need to create your own games. We start with an introductory chapter to help you move fluidly inside the Blueprint user interface, recognize its different components, and understand any already written Blueprint *. Following this, you will learn how to modify generated Blueprint classes to produce a single player tic-tac-toe game and personalize it. Next, you will learn how to create simple user interfaces, and how to extend Blueprints through code. This will help you make an informed decision between choosing Blueprint or code. You will then see the real power of Unreal unleashed as you create a beautiful scene with moving, AI controlled objects, particles, and lights. Then, you will learn how to create AI using a behavior tree and a global level Blueprint, how to modify the camera, and how to shoot custom bullets. Finally, you will create a complex game using Blueprintable components complete with a menu, power-up, dangerous objects, and different weapons. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow guide full of practical game examples. Each chapter contains step-by-step instructions to build a complete game and each game uses a different tool in order to cover all the topics in a detailed and progressive manner.

Over 60 recipes to help you create professional and exquisite UIs to make your games more immersive About This Book Design and develop interactive and professional user interfaces (UIs) for games in Unity Discover how to implement and deal with various in-game UI elements that will impress your players This practical recipe guide will help you to efficiently create powerful and remarkable UIs using C# code Who This Book Is For If you are a game developer with some experience in Unity and C# and want to create the best interactive experience fast and intuitively, then this book is for you. If you are an intermediate game developer or an expert, these recipes will help you bring out the power of the new UI Unity system. What You Will Learn Implement different kinds of counters and healthbars Deal with timers and find out how to format them Animate and vivify UI elements Handle runtime customizations Add complex Head-up displays (HUDs) Design and implement 3D UIs Integrate minimaps in the UI In Detail With the increasing interest in game development, it's essential to design and implement a UI that reflects the game settings and shows the right information to the player. The Unity system is used to create complex and aesthetically pleasing user interfaces in order to give a professional look and feel to a game. Although the new Unity UI system is powerful and quite easy to use, by integrating it with C# *s, it's possible to realize the potential of this system and bring an impressive UI to games.This guide is an invaluable collection of recipes if you are planning to use Unity to develop a game. Starting with the basic concepts of the UI components, we’ll take you all the way through to creating complex interfaces by including animations and dynamics elements. Based on real-world problems, these recipes will start by showing you how to make common UI elements such as counters and healthbars. You will then get a walkthrough of how to manage time using timers, and will learn how to format them. You will move on to decorating and animating the UI elements to vivify them and give them a professional touch. Furthermore, you will be guided into the 3D UI world and into HUD *ing. Finally, you will discover how to implement complex minimaps in the interface.Style and approach Interactive, easy-to-follow recipes will help you create and implement UIs that make gaming an exhilarating experience.